Rendaku

The rendaku (連濁, literally " Voicing successif") is a morphological phenomenon Japanese which consists with to voice the initial Consonne not-initial components of the made up words or prefixed. The rendaku is a frequent but unforeseeable modern Japanese phenomenon. It is also known under the name of sequential voicing .

One can note the rendaku in the following examples:

+ > (" personne" + " personne" → " gens")
+ > (" main" + " papier" → " lettre")

If the rendaku were purely phonological, its occurrences would be systematic and prédictibles by a whole of phonological rules. But the rendaku is also of morphological nature, since it does not apply that to the limit between two groups of Morphème S. the rendaku does not apply besides in all the cases where one would expect it, certain examples showing even that there is sometimes no other rule that the usual use.

Properties which prevent the rendaku

Research concerning the field of application of the rendaku was especially limited to the cases where it does not apply.

Law of Lyman

The most known conditions which prevent the rendaku are known under the name of " law of Lyman" (although the phenomenon in the beginning was discovered by Motoori Norinaga at the 18th century), which concludes that the rendaku does not apply if the second consonant of the second element is a voiced Obstruante . This rule was generalized to affirm that if the second element contains obstructing voiced, where that it is, then the rendaku does not apply. This law is regarded as one of the fundamental rules of the rendaku .

+ >, and not * (" montagne" + " incendie" > " fire of forêt")
+ >, and not * (" a personne" + " voyage" > " seul")
+ >, and not * (" corne" + " lézard" > " lizard with corne")

Lexical properties

In a way similar to the law of Lyman, it was discovered that for some Lexème S, the rendaku does not appear if there is an obstructing consonant voiced close to the morphemic limit, whether the consonant is located before or after the limit.

Certain lexemes tend to resist the rendaku whatever their conditions, others tend to accept it.

The rendaku also appears in the Sino-Japanese words (Japanese words of Chinese origin), but rather seldom. That depends on the degree of Lexicalisation of the term.

+ > (" stock" + " société" > " corporation")
+ >, and not * (" glace" + " café" > " coffee glacé")

Semantic properties

The rendaku also tends not to appear in the compounds meaning " With and B" (called Dvandva S)

+ > " mountains and rivières"
to be compared with + > " river of montagne"

Multiple constraints (of junction)

Lastly, the rendaku is also blocked by what is called the constraints of junction. The phenomenon is actually blocked within the second element of a noninitial compound.

+ (+ chō) >, and not * (" mark familiale" + {" blanc" + " papillon"} > " butterfly of the chou")

but

(+) + > ({" queue" + " blanc"} + " aigle" > " eagle with tail blanche")

To go further

In spite of the big number of rules formulated above to explain the occurrences of the rendaku , there still exists of many words where this one is imprédictible. Certain cases are related to lexical properties, like statement previously, but of others obey laws which remain to be discovered. Consequently, the rendaku remains partially random, going even until posing problems with native Japanese, especially in the proper names, where the rendaku is shown rather capricious. A certain number of names are written in an identical way but apply or not the rendaku , according to the people; for example, 中田 can be read many ways, in which Nakata and Nakada.

Another Example

One can find examples in Japanese who tends to prove that there does not exist complete system of rules to determine the use or not of the rendaku.

In particular, the two particles to count 回 and 階 decide かい exactly in the same way, but one says:

三階: さんがい use of the rendaku
三回: さんかい not of rendaku

This example shows that the use or not of the rendaku is a problem on a case-by-case basis, given at least as much by the use that by a unit of well laid down rules.

See too

References

Haruo Kubozono : Voicing in Japanese (see external bonds)
Masayoshi Shibatani: languages of Japan , p. 173-175.

External bonds

'' Voicing in Japanese ''
'' Of Kanji to the words - Appendices ''

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